If You’re as Chronologically “Mature” as I am…

… then you remember back when there was no way to record a TV show and watch it later?  You had to  sat and watched Ozzie and Harriet or I Love Lucy as it was broadcast, or you just didn’t get to see it–unless the show was successful enough to have at least 100 episodes in the can, so it could be picked up by one of the local independent stations and re-broadcast as re-runs.  

No home video tape machines. No video tapes to rent from Blockbuster (remember Blockbuster?) We all watched together, at the same time, in our time zone.

The world stopped moving on the three Sunday nights in February of 1964 when The Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show.  By this time my family had a color TV and I risked radiation poisoning as I sat two feet from the screen and watched my faves perform twice per show.

Of course, my viewing habits changed with the times, from broadcast to cable, to video, to DVR, then DVD, then Blu-ray and now, Amazon Prime Video, Acorn, Britbox, etc.  

Which brings me to binging.  I am a binger (is that a word?)  Instead of music, I often play the entire Downton Abbey series while I write, like a soundtrack in the background.  If it’s British and has played on PBS, I am or have binged it: Death in Paradise, every episode of Poirot, Marple and Midsomer Murders, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Agatha Raisin, Wycliff, Upstairs/Downstairs, Upstart Crow, Upstart Crow, Upstart Crow…

Turns out that bingeing, binging, bingering–whatever–has also been a boon to our family during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.

I only hope I can stop myself once we’re free to leave the house again.

Mine was a Storybook Childhood…

Because Confession is Good for the Heart…

1.) It took me 17 years to write my first historical romance. Although it (the first 3 chapters) was nominated for RWA’s Golden Heart in 1989, the story itself was utterly unpublishable. Like a repository of bad writing, I keep the manuscript in the attic like an embarrassing uncle, where it takes up three computer paper boxes.

2.) I won the Golden Heart the next time I was nominated (with a totally different story) and sold it, as well as one other book, to Avon Books six weeks later.  All because I finally understood that old advice about romantic conflict: if he’s a firefighter, then she has to be an arsonist.  Metaphorically, speaking, of course. And that she must be acting out of an excess of virtue.

3.) I am a plotter, never been a pantser. Character first, a hero and heroine who will carry the theme and tell the story that I need to tell. By then I’m ready to apply the Hero’s Journey — the clash of their Ordinary Worlds in the Call to Adventure, the motivation to Cross the Threshold into the Special World of their relationship, the Supreme Ordeal, the Reward, the Dark Night of the Soul where each makes a sacrifice, choosing to give and receive unconditional love. Makes it sound easy, but each new book seems harder to write, has different issues than the one before.

4.) The release of a new book continues to thrill me.  A 5-star review sends me over the moon — “you like me! You really like me!” And I won’t consider myself a truly successful author until I see someone reading one of my books on a plane or in an airport.

5.) I deliberately used the surnames of 26 friends in one of my books: A SCANDAL TO REMEMBER.  While I was on a singing tour of the Baltic Countries I was also researching the history of small countries, duchies in the 18th century. To memorialize our 3 week bus tour from town to town, I thought it would be fun to include the members of the choir.  Some are characters, one is a statue of a local hero, one is the name of a village another is the name of a plant species in the heroine’s greenhouse!  Great fun!  FYI-SCANDAL is currently only available from 3rd party sellers, but I’ll be re-issuing it in digital and print format in December 2020.